Is There a Story Hiding in Here?

There's nothing I hate worse than writing a perfectly good story only to discover that I missed the story entirely. What? Huh?

Oh, yeah, you can miss the story. For me, I was so busy trying to fit my entire cast of characters, who I think might work in a novel, into an 1800 word short story, that I missed the story. Man, I had characters up the ying-yang and their being there made perfect sense to me because I built the entire story around my need to have them there. But a member of my crit group said you've got way too many people in this story and shouldn't this story just be about Harry?

Pause for the head thumping here. Yes, the story was about Harry and what he needed to do. I didn't need all those other people running around (there were about eight of them) and I certainly didn't need to set the story on my fictional street. Nope. So, now I'm back to the drawing board and writing this story the way it should be written, by focusing on Harry and what he needs instead of trying to write a novel in 1800 words. Sheesh.